Japan’s development experience: What lessons does it hold for Nigeria?

Abstract Despite the learning opportunities inherent in Nigeria’s history and the country’s access to mainstream and alternative development paradigms through decades of development cooperation, its successive post-independence leaders have failed to leverage these opportunities to build a strong, cohesive and prosperous nation. This paper uses comparative desk research to explore key initiatives taken by Japan in its quest for development and, provides some explanations why the replication of similar transformative initiatives in Nigeria remains elusive. Specifically, the study contends that the extractive political and economic institutions foisted on the country by its post-independence leaders, colonial legacy and political instability, mono-economy, policy inconsistency, widespread corruption, among other factors, account for its inability to learn from the development milestones of Japan and indeed other developed nations. The paper concludes that while the lessons offered in Japan’s development pathways remain useful to Nigeria, the ‘critical historical junctures’ and global architecture navigated by the former for its development have changed. Hence, Nigerian leaders must negotiate the country’s development within the currents of contemporary realities, eschewing those conducts that undermine inclusive prosperity. The study contributes to the broader discourses on development assistance, knowledge transfers and socio-political impediments to the transformative use of knowledge in receiving countries.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Author, Richard Eke IMADE, was born on 11th April, 1978 in Benin City, Nigeria. He holds a BSc in Sociology/ and Anthropology (2004) of the University of Benin, Nigeria and a Master's in International Development (2016) of Nagoya University, Japan. He works with the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Nigeria, but currently on a Doctoral study leave at the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan. He has interest in poverty reduction strategies generally, but specifically his MA Thesis was on microfinance, gender and poverty reduction while his current doctoral research is on social protection for informal workers. By analysing the key initiatives that spurred Japan`s development, this paper hopes to stimulate critical thinking needed to appraise the past and current policy choices that account for the abysmal performance of Nigeria in key development indicators, in order to guide future development policies.

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
The author was motivated to understand why many people in Nigeria are locked in poverty and low human development despite the abundant human and natural resources of the country. Drawing inspiration from the development milestones of Japan, he tries to explain why the transformative initiatives that propelled Japan`s development have been elusive to Nigeria. The study, thus implicated poor leadership, persistent instability, over-dependence on crude oil, among other factors for the current abysmal performance of Nigeria in key development indicators. The study underscored the dilemma between knowledge and the capacity or will to translate it to meaningful development outcomes, thus posing challenges for popular discourses on development assistance and knowledge transfers in receiving countries. The study is significant because of its insights into the choices that explain the current positioning of Nigeria, hoping that it will stimulate critical thinking about development priorities and policies to realize them.

Introduction
A few decades ago, development was thought to be synonymous with social evolution and sociocultural change in the Western model, as contended by modernization theorists, the most notable of whom was Rostow in his 1960 classic, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (Otsubo, 2016, p. 269;Willies, 2005, p. 39). However, development paths have become more diversified since the emergence of Japan after the Second World War, and more recently the Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) and China. Consequently, development assistance to current developing countries by each now-developed country tends to reflect the multiplicity of the experiences of the latter. The former are thus advised to replicate similar milestones, including initiating and implementing reforms which cut across economic, legal, political, socio-cultural and psychological spheres in order to lead them to the status of developed countries (Geddes, 1994;Yamaguchi, 2004, p. 6).
Although the development experiences of developed countries hold significant lessons for developing countries, oftentimes policy advice to reform is not predicated on adequate understanding of the peculiar historical, socio-cultural and institutional characteristics of the latter (Carothers, 2003, pp. 8-9;Otsubo, 2016, p. 267). However, it is now understood that implementing reforms and translating lessons learnt from a society's own history into meaningful development outcomes transcend traditional explanations of change based on modernization theory and their diffusionist arguments, ignorance of leaders or strictly on Marxist class struggles (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012;Geddes, 1994). Undoubtedly, experiences arising from colonialism, apartheid, ethno-religious conflicts, instability and the development experiences of more developed countries contain important lessons that frame policies to achieve development. Similarly, the potency of explanations based on the deterministic role of the market has come under serious criticism in the wake of overwhelming evidence that the policy choices and prioritization of the state could strengthen or undermine market forces and indeed, the development efforts of countries (Mankiw, 2015;Obadan, 2008).
On the other hand, the role of the state has become more profound. Such roles include charting a strategic direction for the country, aggregating and aligning national development aspirations with private interests, removing socio-cultural impediments such as those associated with gender, ethnicity and caste to development while strengthening others such as occupation or communitybased cooperatives and other grassroots initiatives through appropriate legal and social interventions. State's responsibilities also include guaranteeing private property and intellectual property rights, providing market-supportive infrastructure, such as roads, airports, seaports, communication, administration, enforcement of contracts, addressing market failures and stabilizing the economy using a combination of appropriate legal, fiscal and monetary interventions. The state also acts by mitigating the effects of negative externalities such as pollution by imposing environmental regulations and harnessing the benefits of positive externalities such as invention, provision of public goods such as education, health, security and meeting the needs of missing markets. Furthermore, state initiate income redistribution measures to minimise inequality, mitigate the shortcomings of the markets, and ensure efficient allocation and distribution of resources. The state also plays a significant role in ensuring a level playing field for businesses to thrive and for individuals and groups to contribute to the process of national development by enacting enabling laws, such as anti-trust and anti-competition laws, ensuring compliance with advertisement codes and ethics, as the experiences of East Asia and the West have shown (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012;Obadan, 2008;Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development [OECD], 2013;Sachs, 2005;Willies, 2005).
Unfortunately, also the state, especially in developing countries is not always effective at undertaking transformative initiatives for a variety of reasons which will become clear shortly. As a result, current perspectives focus on the motivations of state officials, their interests and the extent of constraints on their powers in view of overwhelming evidence that having knowledge or ideas about how things work elsewhere or should work do not always guarantee that they will be replicated locally. Factors such as cultures, environment, capability, will and interests, and the degree of constraints on the powers of leaders, for instance, are key determinants of whether new ideas will be integrated, discarded or received holistically into a receiving society (Carothers, 2003, pp. 19-21;Collier, 2007, pp. 47-48;Kang, 2002, p. 7;Kurtz & Schrank, 2012, pp. 615-616). Thus, reforms which promote the general good are more likely to be formulated and implemented when they resonate with the vested interests of politicians than when such reforms require sacrifices from them or when failure to act in consonance with the promotion of the public good threatens their positions or status (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012;Geddes, 1994;Kang, 2002).
In view of the above, this paper argues that the current abysmal performance of Nigeria in key development indicators despite the knowledge that has been accumulated over the years through international cooperation with more developed countries in the West and Asia is attributable largely to the subversion of public interest for private interests by successive Nigerian leaders. This has in turn led to inconsistency of policies and programmes, lack of continuity in development plans, over dependence on petroleum resources, and profligacy of the political class, among other problems (Akeredolu-Ale, 2005;Mbeke-Ekanem, 2000;Obadan, 2008). Thus, the ability of Nigeria to translate lessons learned from international cooperation into meaningful development outcomes depends on whether the political class can eschew vested interests in state policies and programme designs, implementations and evaluations. It also depends on the capacity of the citizens to be united in their demand for accountability from those in leadership positions rather than the current polarization based on ethnicity, religion, gender and region accentuated by patronage politics. Of equal importance is whether the legislative and judiciary arms of government which have suffered a history of military subjugation, will perform their oversight functions effectively and whether civil society can impose sufficient constraints on the subversion of the general good for private interests by the political class.
In the section that follow, attempts shall be made to discuss various initiatives, including how national consensus, leadership and investment in human capital helped Japan to harness benefits from its critical junctures. How Japan's economic and technological reforms, the state and private sector partnership, as well as police reforms and environmental protection initiatives led it from a developing country to one of the most developed countries in the world today will also be examined in the course of this paper. While reviewing key lessons inherent in these milestones that could be useful to Nigeria, the paper highlights how the policies and programme choices of post-independence Nigerian leaders have impeded the nation's development despite the abundance of natural and human resources as well as a relatively long history of interactions with more developed countries. The paper concludes that despite the possibility of knowledge transfer, development initiatives are relative to time and space. Therefore, it is anticipated that Nigerian leaders will identify and pursue with tenacity those initiatives that best suit the realities of the country and the currents of the contemporary world in view of the penetrating effects of globalisation.

National consensus for development
The development experience of Japan reflects the fact that development is propelled when leaders create a platform for the alignment of national development priorities with shared nationalistic visions which hold a promise of enhanced well-being for citizens. A recurring factor in the explanation of Japan's ascendance as a developed country is the role played by national solidarity on the need to "catch up" with the West which was shared by the government, the private sector and households (Ohno, 2006, p. 43). Thus, national consensus suppressed existing differences among hitherto warring groups and became a rallying point for making sacrifices to fast track development. Arguably, no other case in the contemporary history of Nigeria has demonstrated how this kind of national consensus could be mobilized for development as the recent outbreak of the Ebola disease which instilled mutual fear that stimulated a need for collective action to surmount the disease outbreak irrespective of prevalent differences in socio-political affiliations (Tilley-Gyado, 2015). Although Japan, unlike Nigeria, was not formally colonized by an external government, the coerced entry into Japan led by the United States in 1853 was a significant turning point in the economic and political history of the country. Consequently, the threat of further invasion by external forces increased the cost of internal hostility and fragmentations and stimulated a commitment to cooperative action among key stakeholders in Japan to develop its military might and fast track economic development (Ohno, 2006;Tachi, 1993).
However, in Nigeria, colonialism sowed the seed of ethnic fragmentations; promoted ethnic patronage rather than allegiance to the nation-state; intensified inter-ethnic and regional rivalries which heightened competition to access state resources for mutually exclusive purposes. Consequently, the emergence of a universalistic relationship to the nation-state as citizens on equal standing and the possibility of building a national consensus to fast track development, as was the case in Japan, remains a mirage (Kwaja, 2011;Osaghae & Suberu, 2005). While the constitution of Nigeria grants citizenship rights on the bases of a blood relationship to Nigerian ancestry, parents, birth, conferment and naturalization, the enjoyment of these rights depends on whether one is an indigene in a particular geographical space within Nigeria; whether one belongs to the dominant ethnic group in a particular area or the group with widespread control of the economic, political and social spheres of life; whether one shares the same religious faith with the dominant religion in particular states or Local Government Areas, or whether one is affiliated to the ruling political elites in one or more of the above-mentioned identities. The unhealthy competition arising from these multiple identities in turn provided a platform for military incursion into politics with its inglorious records of labour movement' suppression, unbridled state power and human rights abuses, as well as programme and policy discontinuity amid widespread mismanagement of resources and corruption (Mbeke-Ekanem, 2000;Osaghae & Suberu, 2005).

Leadership, critical junctures and foresightedness
Japan's development history shows that development is a gradual process with ''critical junctures'' (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012, p. 96), which could be negative (as in the invasion or forceful opening of Japan by the Allied Forces, led by the US in 1853, the civil war in 1867 and the devastation suffered during World War II) or positive (as in the opening up of Japan for international commercial activities, the strengthening of the military and the development of military industries in Kobe in order to forestall further invasion and the Korean War of 1950-53). The role of leadership in navigating these critical junctures and translating national aspirations to development objectives, as the case of Japan shows, cannot be overemphasised. With the opening up of the country for trade came other complementary policies initiated during the Meiji period such as acknowledgement of the role of industrialisation in development and its active pursuit, development of industrial policies, various incentives to maximize value from human resources and investments in science and technology (Ohno, 2006).
The state's sponsorship of young Japanese to study in foreign institutions to acquire new skills and knowledge in industrial technologies, increased spending on foreign expatriates' training and teachers for technical knowledge transfer were great initiatives (including shipbuilding from the USA, cotton yarn from the United Kingdom, silk yarn from France, the train system from the United Kingdom, and medical service and governmental administration from Germany) and imitation and adaptation of foreign technologies to local environment and needs (Ohno, 2006, pp. 62-64;Rahm, Kirkland, & Bozeman, 2000, pp. 31-32). Further innovation was encouraged with a profound focus on continuous improvement and efficiency in productive technology. Leadership foresightedness also played an important role in the development of supportive infrastructure to link people with needed services, production centres and markets, as could be seen in the massive investment in transport and communication infrastructure such as railway and telegraph. The establishment of special zones for factories, especially textiles and iron and steel to stimulate industrial development during the Meiji period were particularly notable steps taken by the Japanese government (Ohno, 2006, pp. 62-65;Tachi, 1993).

Leadership and economic and technological reforms
To fast track development, it was necessary to implement various reforms geared towards democratising the economy. First, there was a need to dissolve large business conglomerates (zaibatsu) in order to halt the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few influential companies. Second, there was a need to enact market-supportive laws such as the Economic Power Excessive Concentration Elimination Law in 1947; the Security Exchange and the Anti-Trust Laws in 1945 to create incentives for competition, innovation and promote transparency with a view to forestalling consumer exploitation. Third, there was a need to implement land reforms to check the unscrupulous practices of absentee landlords and empower farmers to acquire their own land. Fourth, there was a need to embark on labour reforms, leading to the enactment of the Labour Union Law of 1945, Labour Standards and Labour Relations Adjustment Law of 1945 to strengthen civil society and deepen democratization. Fifth, due to a paucity of resources, there was a need to prioritize limited segments (chemical, coal, electricity, marine transportation, railway, shipbuilding and steel) of the economy with higher propensities to accelerate economic growth for targeted policy and funding interventions (Otsubo, 2007, pp. 8, 12; see also Yasuda, 2005, pp. 25-26).
To further harness the benefits of agglomeration, the government created industrial linkages, for instance, among steel, shipbuilding and machinery. The government also subsidised interest rates to these sectors and facilitated technology upgrades and absorption to boost productivity and competitiveness (Otsubo, 2007, pp. 8, 12;Yasuda, 2005, pp. 25-26). These were done through industrial promotion interventions such as SMEs promotion, R&D assistance, investments in exports infrastructure, preferential taxes, subsidies, low interest rates on loans, coordination of outputs and information sharing. Sixth, tax reforms, including personal income tax were implemented to muster resources for government development financing. Added to the above was the embrace of development planning since 1937 (although Johnson believes the history of planning was actually 1868 during the Meiji period), incorporating the views of the private sector in charting the development course (Johnson, 1982, p. 23;Ohno, 2006, pp. 104, 157, 172). These plans, including the Economic Self Reliance (1956)(1957)(1958)(1959)(1960), the National Income Doubling Plan (1961)(1962)(1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970), Economic andSocial Development Plan (1967-1971), Economic andBasic Social Plan (1973-1977) and the Economic Plan for Second Half of the 1970s were very important in charting strategic direction for streamlining the allocation and use of resources (Otsubo, 2007, p. 21).
However, these plans were hampered by a variety of factors, including political instability, inadequate consultations with relevant stakeholders, (especially the private sector), and failure to mobilise grassroots inputs, ill-conceived indigenization policy, lack of plan coordination, continuity and inter-ministerial collaboration, inappropriate prioritisation of programmes and projects, mismanagement of resources coupled with oil prices volatility, persistent inflation and debt burden which affected funding of these plans (Kanayo, 2014). More recently, Nigeria has also attempted to revive the planning culture with the launch of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), Nigeria Vision 20: 2020 (NV20:2020) and some regime-based short term plans such as the Seven Point and Transformation Agendas which tended to run concurrently at least until the expiration of the tenure of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in May, 2015.
However, there are indications that these plans are being threatened by MDAs' failure to comply with the programmes and projects prioritisation spelt out in the plan. Other factors affecting the plan include the inability of key actors (the private sector and federal and state governments) to meet up with their counterpart funding due to the volatility in the price of crude oil, institutional and governance weaknesses, corruption, private sector's distrust for government, lack of sustainable financing for small and medium scale enterprises, social disharmony, uncompetitive business environment, poor infrastructure, policy discontinuity and project management capacity challenges (African Development Bank Group [ADB], 2013, p. 9).
Furthermore, shortly after independence, Nigeria pursued inward-looking strategies of import substitution, especially prior to the 1980s; created government monopolies which promoted corruption and mismanagement of the state's resources, especially revenue from petroleum products, amid policy inconsistencies and low commitment to the diversification of the economy; pursued illconceived fiscal and monetary policies; engaged in unguided borrowing not to stimulate industrial production and long-term infrastructural development (as in the case of Japan) but for consumption (Obadan, 2008 The consequences of electricity shortage for Nigeria include low productivity and exodus of investments and industries from the country to neighbouring West African countries in order to reduce high operating costs incurred from running mainly on generating sets and fuelling (Banjoko, 2009). This in turn has serious implications for the availability of employment opportunities for the growing population which migrates to cities daily in search of greener pastures. Closely related to the issue of energy infrastructure is transport, housing and communication infrastructure. The poor development of these (road, air, rail and water transportation, as well as housing and communication) means that benefits are lost in terms of generating employment, accelerating commercial activities and contributing to an export-driven development strategy which have gained widespread appeal in modern development theory (see World Bank, 2009, p. 6). Thus, the foresight which led Japan's successive leaders to intensify efforts at developing critical infrastructure is a major factor which has been lacking in many successive Nigerian leaders.

Natural vs human resources debate
Japan's development history demystified the debate on the primacy of human resources over natural resources in fostering development and, shows the resilience of a country which learnt important lessons from its history and took practical steps to forestall a re-occurrence of negative historical events. For instance, the energy challenge confronting Japan was a major stimulant for the development of energysaving technology which in turn became a springboard for the global competitiveness of Japanese export industries, especially electrical appliances and automobiles (Ohno, 2006, pp. 187-188).
In contrast, the Nigerian economy in the 1970s was basically driven by agro-based industries, including plant production (cocoa, groundnut, tobacco, cotton, palm oil and ginger) as well as hides and skins, which resulted in the classification of the country as a middle income country in 1980 with a per capita GDP of USD1,000 and acclaimed as one of the highest in Africa. However, Nigeria's economy was adversely affected by the recession of the 1980s and per capita GDP diminished by about 5% between 1980 and 1987, creating widespread inequality (United Nation's Developments Programme United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 1990, p. 58). Many studies attributed the above to the excessive dependence on petroleum resources and neglect of agriculture, coupled with massive corruption, policy inconsistencies, infrastructural constraints and so on (Collier, 2007, pp. 39-40;Obadan, 2008). As a result, the contribution of taxes to government revenue remains negligible, and it has been observed that nations which rely on primary products rather than taxation or value added products and services are more vulnerable to shocks in international market prices, prone to internal strife and are also likely to sacrifice public service delivery for patronage politics in order to gain legitimacy no thanks to citizens' complacence about the transparency and accountability of their leaders (Collier, 2007, pp. 44-47;Gboyega, Soreide, Minh Le, & Shukla, 2011, p. 7). For instance, the sharing of oil revenue and appointments in key oil ministries, departments and agencies have been sources of persistent rivalries between the federal and state governments, oil and non-oil producing states, and even within oil producing states and communities themselves, as well as between the northern and southern regions, especially in this era of falling oil prices (Aluko & Ajani, 2009;Bain, Porter and Watts, 2015;Gboyega et al., 2011;Katsouris & Sayne, 2013;Mbeke-Ekanem, 2000).
Similarly, between 1980 and 1990, the contribution of export manufacturing and semi-manufactured agricultural products to total GDP plummeted from 3.0 to 0.5%, and by 2006 it stood at a meagre 0.3%. Crude oil contributed 57.6% of export earnings and 26.3% of federal revenue in 1970, but by 2006, its contributions had grown astronomically to 97.7 and 88.6% respectively at the expense of the non-oil exports, which declined in comparable percentages (Obadan, 2008, pp. 74-81). Nigeria currently exports crude oil and imports refined petroleum products due to lack of local capacity to refine this commodity and the near-moribund state of the nation's four refineries (Amuwo, 2008, pp. 37-38). This is despite the fact that the Petroleum Technology Trust Fund (PTDF), which was set up by Act. No. 25 of 1973 but reconstituted in 2000 to stimulate human capital development, the enhancement of institutional capabilities and technological domestication and transfer, claimed to have trained a total of 2417 Masters and 642 PhDs through its overseas scholarship scheme between 2002 and 2013, and another 897 beneficiaries spread across undergraduate, masters and PhD programmes for its local scholarship scheme between 2007 and 2012 (Petroleum Technology Development Fund [PTDF], 2015). This is besides the thousands of graduates churned out annually by the nation's engineering and related faculties. To say that Nigeria still does not have the local capacity to refine crude oil about 60 years after its discovery speaks volumes either about the quality of our educational system or the political will to make this realisable. This has made influential individuals, especially the political class who benefit from the importation of petroleum products to continue sabotaging the nation. Apart from the loss of government revenue through the rent seeking that characterises the process, the unemployment situation in the country is further worsened and the benefits that would have been derived from composite petroleum products and the prospects of local capacity development in oil and gas are also lost.
On the other hand, realising that the country was resource scarce (except for coal and limited agricultural land), the Japanese government initiated steps to boost the quality of its human capital (Ohno, 2006, p. 153). These initiatives included fostering collaboration among universities, research institutes and industries, in order to make funds available for the implementation of targeted research to meet human and industrial needs, promote general knowledge, technological adaptation to the local environment, and boost human capacity. This also ensured that research products or innovations are commercialised to further add value to society and generate revenue for the various actors. Such collaborations were also beneficial to students seeking practical knowledge of industrial processes through internships and students' work-study programmes (Rahm et al., 2000;Tachi, 1993; see also World Bank, 2009).
However, in Nigeria, this kind of collaboration still leaves much to be desired, thus hindering the availability of funding for R&D purposes, as well as leveraging the benefits that could be derived from Nigerian professionals abroad, as was the case in China, Hong Kong and Singapore (see Gribble, 2008, p. 30; International Organisation for Migration [IOM], 2014). The government remains the sole funder of academic research, but with the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) foisted austerity measures since the 1980s, misplacement of priorities and widespread corruption, among other factors, funding for the social sector, including educational and industrial research has drastically declined over the years (Aluede, 2006;Aluede, Idogho, & Imonikhe, 2012). While capacity building and manpower development frequently appear in the development plans of Nigeria, including the NV 20: 2020, these objectives are only stated broadly, without specific quantitative details of the expertise required across various fields, as the experience of Japan revealed.
Added to the above, the Japanese government initiated policies to promote gender equality in education, including encouraging a hybrid between Western model education and traditional crafts, vocation or practical skills, such as sewing, home management techniques, and a child support system to boost female participation in education (Kuroda, 2004, pp. 109-110). While some might argue that such policies promote gender role segregation, for a society such as Nigeria, where the patriarchal grip is still very strong and various socio-cultural practices continue to undermine the contributions of women to the nation's development, especially in the northern part of the country, such policies will be steps in the right direction if used as bait to get parents to release their female children to attend schools in the first instance. More so, the ability of females (and of course males) to appropriately strike a balance between domestic responsibilities and career promotes family harmony, which is needed for higher levels of pursuit. Besides, the child support system was very important in ensuring that females who would have otherwise dropped out of school continued their education, contrary to the situation in Nigeria, where child birth takes a heavy toll on females. This is especially true in the northern part where many women marry relatively young compared to their southern counterparts and are subsequently forced out of school due to motherhood and housekeeping pressures (Cortez, Saadat, Marinda, & Oluwole, 2015;Fawole, 2011).
The situation is further worsened by the disintegration of the extended family system which hitherto plays significant supportive role in nurturing children and maintaining household equilibrium. It is envisaged that the implementation of such policies in Nigeria will drastically reduce the number of adolescent mothers who drop out of school annually due to the absence of such systems of support. Such policies are also necessary as initial steps to a more comprehensive, just and equitable gender mainstreaming policy for a country like Nigeria where cultural norms have left females struggling for enrolment spaces across various educational levels compared to males (British Council Nigeria, Furthermore, the Japanese government initiatives to provide funding and support to private schools after the Second World War, by focusing on their service delivery to students and the country at large, in terms of contributing to manpower development rather than perceiving them as mere profit-motivated enterprises as is currently the case in Nigeria, is highly commendable (Saito & Miura, 2004, p. 74). It is felt that the Nigerian government should do more in terms of funding and support to private schools in the country, especially against the background that, in spite of the proliferation of private schools in the country, only about 100,000 of the over 900,000 students seeking admission into universities can be accommodated by the existing institutions (NPC, 2009, p. 64) and the quality of education delivery by the private sector has also left much to be desired due to funding challenges and poor institutional regulations. The law to secure capable education personnel of 1974 in Japan was also very influential in attracting highly motivated and intelligent individuals to the educational sector (Saito & Miura, 2004, p. 75;Tanaka, Yamamoto, Murata, Adachi, & Iseji, 2004, p. 213).
However, in Nigeria, due to the poor salaries of teachers and the deplorable conditions under which they carry out their duties, teaching has been stripped of its dignity, and the consequence has been that the educational sector is not able to compete with other sectors in attracting and retaining very intelligent, competent and highly motivated personnel. This has resulted in the dearth of qualified teachers, coupled with limited opportunities for on-the-job training, low incentives and motivation, low prestige and poor remuneration attached to the teaching profession vis-à-vis other professions, an infrastructural deficit, poverty-induced child labour, lack of instructional facilities, and poor regulatory practices, especially among the currently increasing private providers (Etuk, Ering, & Ajake, 2012;Federal Republic of Nigeria and International Labour Organisation [FRN and ILO], 2005). All of these factors collectively undermine the objectives of education in Nigeria. For instance, a recent national study revealed that 87% of primary school classrooms were in very deplorable conditions, 12% of the pupils sit on the bare floor, and 38% of the classrooms were without ceilings. Added to the above are the incessant strikes by instructors at all levels of education which impact negatively both on the demand and supply sides of the sector (Adepoju & Fabiyi, 2007, p. 1). The consequence is that the teaching profession now comprises many people who are not qualified to teach with the abysmal consequence of lowering the standard of educational instruction. Furthermore, unlike the effectiveness of the teachers' licensing system in Japan, while there are many organizations and various policies to regulate entry into teaching, many private schools still employ unqualified teachers as a cost-reduction measure, and since the regulatory agencies are often compromised, such practices persist unhindered (International Organisation for Migration [IOM], 2014, p. 11).
Again, although at the national and state levels there are scholarships boards, the selection of beneficiaries is based on subjective rather than objective considerations, coupled with the absence of legislation on school loan system in Nigeria makes it difficult for many indigents but intelligent students to go through the stress of schooling without official state support, unlike in Japan (Murata, 2004, pp. 120-121). Finally, until 2014, there was no comprehensive legislation promoting inclusive education for children with disabilities in Nigeria and many children who fall into this category continue to be stigmatised and left out of schools. Even those who manage to go to school do not have access to the needed instructional materials to make learning tolerable for them. There are also not many teachers who are specialists in education focusing on this category of learners unlike the case in Japan (Murata, 2004, pp. 119-120).

The quality of bureaucrats
In Japan, the bureaucracy was separated from the political leadership, which made it easy for bureaucrats to sustain plans, policies and programmes, unlike in Nigeria where political instability resulted in frequent changes of government, with each new administration introducing its own agenda and employing its own people. Japanese bureaucrats were very experienced and skilful, having been recruited through a very competitive examination, unlike the case in Nigeria where appointment of bureaucrats is more often based on political patronage and ethno-religious considerations rather than on merit (Amuwo, 2008, pp. 44-48;Johnson, 1982, pp. 20-21). For example, the success recorded by Japan in the promotion and enforcement of energy efficient measures is largely attributed to the existence of highly professional and competent bureaucrats manning the various local government offices (ALMEC Corporation, 2011). The alleged secret recruitment of 909 personnel by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in contravention of the constitution and the federal character principle recently (Iloani, 2016) and the compulsory retirement of the former immigration head due to allegation of secretly recruiting people based on their ethnic affinity to her rather than on merit (Ajehi, 2013) are examples of this problem.

The state and private sector partnership
A striking feature of the success story of the Japanese economy was the balance of power between the agents of the state and big businesses in terms of enforcement of agreements and the ability to compel compliance in the event of default, which helped to check arbitrariness in the exercise of state power (Kang, 2002). This is unlike in Nigeria, where there is a system of the winner-takes-all and inter-group contestations for state power is pervasive and usually characterized by violent conflicts. Indeed, the Nigerian state epitomizes the predatory and extractive state described by Acemoglu and Robinson (2012), due to the subjugation of the legislature and judiciary over the years and the divisive strategies used by leaders of state machineries to weaken the citizens' quest to mobilise the needed solidarity to demand a change in the status quo (Amuwo, 2008, p. 32). Moreover, there is no clear-cut distinction between business owners and those in government, as was the case in Japan. Often, private interests (such as those associated with privatization, where public enterprises are sold for pittance to political allies and cronies with poor service delivery to citizens) are construed and promoted as public interests (Olaniyan, 2005, pp. 98-99;Olorode, 2013).
In addition, the relationship between the state and the private sector in Japan was driven by mutual interest (political and economic nationalism, as well as a desire to meet the private interest of both actors). However, in achieving their interests, both actors recognised the role of export-led growth and went about building infrastructure and formulating policies that promoted international trade and competitiveness, including removing obstacles to trade. Thus, by fulfilling their economic and political interests, the agents of the state and big businesses in Japan indirectly created a system which ensured that such benefits were shared by a majority of citizens who depended on this critical infrastructure and big industrial and trading conglomerates in terms of employment and positive effects on their incomes (Kang, 2002). Similarly, the close relationship between the state and big businesses in Japan reduced significantly the transaction cost (advertising cost for bidders, restricted procurement, transport cost and so on) of carrying out government business and contract implementations (Johnson, 1982). In contrast, the actors competing for public contracts in Nigeria are more diverse, cutting across ethnic, religious, class, professional and regional divides, and the process of screening public contractors amid conflicts of interests among these actors imposes high costs on governance (Olorode, 2013).

Environmental protection initiatives
Another area where the experience of Japan could be applied to Nigeria is in the area of environmental protection and sustainable development. While acknowledging the multi-dimensions of sustainability (social, economic, institutional and environmental), I would like to focus only on the environmental aspect, which was defined in the NV20:2020 as geared towards "[i]nvesting to create an environment that enables the co-existence of growth and development on an enduring and sustainable basis" (p. 21). Although the performance of manufacturing in Nigeria is still very disappointing (Banjoko, 2009), threats to environmental sustainability are already appearing. For instance, in the eastern, western and southern parts of the country, floods, erosion and oil production-induced environmental pollution are perennial problems due to the activities of both licensed and non-licensed refineries. In the north, it is the problem of rapid desertification (NPC, 2009). With a view to promoting environmental sustainability, a number of steps were articulated in the NV20:2020, including: checking increasing loss of bio-diversity, restoration of already degraded areas and protection of sensitive ecological sites; seeking and adopting environmentally-friendly strategies for exploiting natural resources and strategies for mitigating the impact of climate change on development; advocating and ratifying international conventions on climate change; stopping land degradation, and adopting an integrated approach to address the problem of desertification and droughts; promoting a clean environment through effective waste management; minimising the occurrence and impact of environmental hazards and disasters; environmental awareness creation and implementation of effective environmental governance policies (NPC, 2009, p. 152).
However, in spite of these stated goals, the widespread dependence of people, especially in the rural areas on forest resources such as firewood and charcoal and the incessant cases of oil spills and unrestrained gas flaring, especially in the Niger-Delta region, continue to threaten environmental and livelihood sustainability (United Nations Environmental Programme [UNEP], 2011). For example, an estimate of about 2.5 billion cubic feet of associated gas is flared and wasted through crude oil exploration and processing in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. This represents USD2.5 billion in financial loss to the country, apart from the health and livelihood threats posed to host communities despite the existence of legislation against gas flaring since 1984 as contained in section three of the Associated Gas Reinjection Act, 1979 (Environmental Rights Action [ERA]/Friends of the Earth, 2005, p. 10). Sustainability challenges of industrial manufacturing and development such as exposure to harmful chemicals are already emerging in major production and commercial cities, including Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onitsha and Kano. For instance, on 6th March, 2014, it was reported that 13 students were hospitalized after inhaling poisonous substances emanating from a chemical production company in Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos; four months after 25 students were similarly exposed to the same dangerous substances (Adelaja, Olowoopejo, & Onyegbula, 2014). In contrast, following the bitter lessons learned from the outbreak of major air and water pollution related diseases such as Minamata Disease (1956), Itai-Itai disease (1955), and Yokkaichi Asthma around the late 1950s, and Niigata Minamata disease (1965) in its drive towards economic development, Japan took practical steps. These included the enactment of various laws such as the Air Pollution Prevention Law in 1968, the Basic Law on Pollution Control in 1967, the Law for Pollution-Related Damage Compensation in 1973, the Water Pollution Prevention Law, the polluter pays principle, periodic health surveys and medical interventions as well as implementation of environment and ecosystem regeneration programmes, the establishment of the Environmental Agency in 1971 in addition to granting soft loans and flexible taxation to industries to invest in environmentally friendly technologies (Bianchi, Cruz, & Nakamura, 2005a, 2005bMinamata City, 2007;Muhandiki, Ballatore, & Nakamura, 2005;Ohno, 2006). Furthermore, local energy challenges and global concerns over the menace of climate change, due to increased concentration of greenhouse gases-carbon dioxide, methane and sulphur oxide in the atmosphere, spurred Japan to initiate various policies to promote efficiency in energy use. For instance, between 1971 and 1995, the GDP to Co2 emissions ratio in the country stood at 2:1, making the country one of the least contributors to greenhouse gases emissions compared to other developed nations, thanks to a combination of effective regulatory laws and policies, recourse to energy efficient measures, including transformation in the industrial structure, and oil crises of the 1970s-induced diversification to alternative and new energy sources-nuclear, coal, liquefied natural gas, as well as geothermal, wave and solar (Fukui, 2002, p. 5). Prominent among these state-led initiatives were the enactment of the Law Concerning the Rational Use of Energy in 1979Energy in and its subsequent amendments in 1993Energy in , 1998Energy in , 2005Energy in and 2008 to include business sector and top-runner industries, as well as the establishment of the New Energy Development Organisation (NEDO) in 1980. NEDO was at the forefront of encouraging local governments to develop "Local Visions on Energy Efficiency" in pursuit of its mandate of promoting the adoption of energy efficient measures across the country (ALMEC Corporation, 2011, pp. 2-22-2-24, 3-38;Inui & Kato, 2002, p. 5). The enactment of the Law on the Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures in 1997 was also in response to the challenges posed by climate change and the need to mitigate them (Inui & Kato, 2002, p. 38).
In addition, the national government, taking a cue from the local governments also enacted the Environmental Impact Assessment Law in 1997, which mandated industries to carry out and submit reports of their compulsory feasibility studies, detailing the actual or potential threats of their operational procedures on individuals and the environment, as well as measures to mitigate them (Inui & Kato, 2002, p. 41). Apart from the use of tax exemption, provision of subsidies, direct investments in clean energy-related R&D, the government also initiated soft loans policy, which was implemented by Japan Development Bank, Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business and Housing Loan Corporation, to encourage industries to invest in energy saving technologies (ALMEC Corporation, 2011, pp. 1-8;Inui & Kato, 2002, p. 35).
Meanwhile, local governments have earlier enacted the Pollution Control Ordinances and production sites monitoring, dating to as early as 1949 and 1950 when Tokyo Metropolitan government, and Osaka Prefecture, respectively pioneered these initiatives. Local governments also collaborated with the national government and local residents, to elicit voluntary agreements from businesses to comply with environment-friendly and energy saving laws and regulations (Inui & Kato, 2002, p. 38). Other measures by government included the use of Eco-friendly Model City or Town initiatives, community-based urban planning and coordination, promotion of mass transit schemes and effective traffic management strategies (ALMEC Corporation, 2011, pp. 2-25-2-26).
Lessons from Japan`s initiatives to address the challenges posed by these major diseases outbreak and energy saving measures discussed above continue to reverberate in the development history of the country and offer a lesson about how the pursuit of economic growth need not compromise the environment and people's quality of life in developing countries, including Nigeria. It also demonstrates how effective decentralisation and collaboration between the national and local governments could leverage citizens' knowledge and commitments in the process of negotiating mutually beneficial outcomes with private industries regarding issues of sustainable livelihoods and environment (ALMEC Corporation, 2011;Fujikura, 2005). Finally, one of the first things that stuns visitors to Nigeria is the sight of indiscriminate refuse disposal along major highways which indicates institutional failure and lack of a systematic procedure to evacuate them unlike the situation in Japan where the government has devised appropriate mechanism to dispose and recycle waste. It also reflects the level of discipline among average citizens and their understanding that a healthy environment translates to healthy lives and verse versa. In contrast, every new comer to Japan is expected to undergo an orientation on proper waste separation and disposal and the level of citizens' compliance is quite commendable.

Rural development initiatives
Another area that is worthy of note where the experience of Japan can be useful to Nigeria, not so much because of the availability of industries in the urban centres of Nigeria, but because of modernisation which is not driven by industrialisation, is the issue of rural-urban migration. Due to the uneven concentration of economic and administrative structures in cities, there is massive migration to cities and the attendant challenges of unemployment, housing and slums development, security issues, environmental pollution, high cost of living and so on in urban areas, as well as rural degeneration and agricultural decline. However, while rural degeneration as a result of migration also constitutes a problem in contemporary Japan, unlike Japan most rural communities in Nigeria lack basic amenities such as pipe-borne water, electricity, good quality schools, well constructed road networks to link agricultural products to markets, and communication facilities to keep them abreast of business opportunities elsewhere, health care, and recreational facilities. The consequence of these issues is that most people residing in rural areas are unable to access resources to develop relevant capability to improve their lives and contribute meaningfully to the nation's development (International Fund for Agricultural Development [IFAD], 2012;Okafor, 2005). The cities too, unlike Japan, are poorly planned amid weak enforcement of urban development plans while rapid population growth continues to exert enormous pressure on the meagre resources of government (see ALMEC Corporation, 2011).

Police reforms
The police in Meiji Japan was a highly centralized organization geared towards safeguarding the interest of the ruling class; ensuring internal security and earning the respect of the Western powers (Aldous, 1997). The Police was also characterised by usurpation of judicial functions, indiscriminate detention of suspects, harassment of critical intellectuals and suppression of divergent views which threaten the ideological orientations of the political class through the introduction of the Peace Preservation Order of 1887 and the Public Peace Police Law of 1900, intimidation of voters, forceful extraction of confession from suspect, among others. However, centralisation of the police constantly undermined the powers of the governors because the Home Minister appointed the police chiefs and was the major source of funding in a manner similar to the current experiences of the Federal and sub-national governments in contemporary Nigeria. The poor working conditions and remuneration also pushed the police to transfer their aggression on the citizens and exposed them to corruption in a manner similar to the experiences of the police in contemporary Nigeria.
However, following the occupation of Japan, there was a need to demilitarise, decentralise and democratise policing. In view of this, the neighbourhood associations and collective responsibility for policing, which existed during pre-war Japan became handy because it resonated with the ideals of community policing similar to the British system (Aldous, 1997). One only needs to visit Japan to ascertain the level of professionalism and civility with which the police carries out its responsibilities nowadays.
In contrast, despite its current democratic dispensation, coercion remains the main strategy used by the police in Nigeria, a practice which was inherited from the colonial era when the police and warrant officers were used to forcefully compel the people to pay taxes and do the bidding of the British colonizers. The situation was not helped by the domination of military rule for the greater part of the country's post-independence history. While these military regimes lasted, they ruled by the force of the gun and the police was also used in similar capacities as pre-Second World War Japan prior to reforms (Civil Society Panel on Police Reform in Nigeria [CSPPRN], 2012, pp. 13, 23). Presently, this area cries for genuine reform in Nigeria, especially because ex-military personnel continue to play significant roles in Nigerian politics and of course, it takes time for the orientation of people to change in the desired direction. This area urgently requires tapping from the experiences of Japan. Also, the police system has been controlled centrally by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Some of the consequences of this have been that the police is often used to repress rival political groups and individuals; they demonstrate loyalty to authorities at the national level rather than those at the sub-national level; and sometimes this lack of effective collaboration between national and subnational authorities leads to inefficiency and ineffectiveness in carrying out policing functions. This is why there have been increased calls for the amendment of the constitution to empower the states to have their own police, which can respond more appropriately to local needs and practice community policing as is being done in Japan today. The success of Japan in this area also holds enormous lessons for Nigeria.
Furthermore, as has been noted before, the colonial and military orientation of the Nigerian police force makes them think that they are superior to the average citizen of Nigeria. The Nigerian police force and indeed the military have continued to feature abysmally with regard to citizens' rights violations in successive Human Rights Watch reports (CSPPRN, 2012, pp. 14, 21). The rule of law and habeas corpus requirements is constantly being violated, and extra-judicial executions are carried out at will under the euphemism of "accidental discharge". However, one only needs to visit Japan to understand the level of civility with which the police carry out its functions. This helps to build trust between the citizens and the law enforcement agents and in turn feeds into the community policing strategy. Cases of extra-judicial killings are frequent in Nigeria due to the general lack of trust in the police to enforce and protect the rights of people. A case in point is the extra-judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the late leader of the dreaded Boko Haram group by the Nigerian police while in its custody (Obateru, Omonobi, Mikairu, & Idonor, 2009).
While emphasising the imperatives for police reforms in Nigeria, this alone will not yield much if the entire criminal justice system, especially the judiciary and prisons, is not efficient. The police can arrest and cause suspects to be charged in court, but if the court is not performing its function properly and cases linger on for years, and if the prison becomes just punitive without being reformative and corrective, or if law enforcement agencies are continuously locked in supremacy tussles, the primary essence of police reforms would be defeated. Furthermore, any reform, whether in the police or elsewhere, which does not take into consideration other factors has more chances of failure than success. Such factors include the remuneration and general welfare of personnel; the proportion of citizens who do not have means to fulfil legitimate opportunities: employment, education, health, and social protection for vulnerable groups and individuals; the reward system in the general society; and inequality, among others. For example, if the remuneration and welfare of police officers are not taken seriously by the state, they are easily swayed to take sides depending on who is able to guarantee for them certain minimum living standard. This is why politicians, wealthy and influential people in Nigeria continue to use the police against less privileged citizens.
Finally, it is also important to emphasize the role of the resources and technology, including Close Circuit Camera Television (CCTV), mobility devices (vehicles, helicopters), and well-planned cities and towns; the nature of relationship between the police on the one hand, and citizens and communities on the other hand; and a minimum level of education and competence expected of police officers in particular societies as indicative of their level of efficiency or otherwise. For instance, the effectiveness of the national identity and phone number registration systems in Japan helps in no small measure to track individuals who might use such numbers for criminal activities, and the awareness of this possibility facilitate preventive policing which is still very porous in most developing countries. These attributes are very visible in Japan and contributes to the relative peace and security which exists, unlike in many developing countries, including Nigeria.

Favourable external conditions
While Japan leveraged the Korean War of 1950-53 to reap bountiful sales of its military wares and the improvements in the post Second World War economic atmosphere created by increased demand for reconstruction and rehabilitation of war-ravaged infrastructures (Ohno, 2006, p. 34), revenue from the oil boom of the 1970s and during periods of turbulence in the Middle East which often increased the demand for Nigeria's crude oil was squandered on white elephant projects and diverted to personal accounts of successive leaders in various countries across the world (Mbeke-Ekanem, 2000, p. 18). The country was also not able to seize the opportunity offered by globalisation to develop its export earning potentials like the Asian Tigers and China despite being blessed with abundant natural and human resources (Iyoha, 2005;Obadan, 2008).

Conclusion
This paper has so far argued that the state plays important role in charting a strategic direction for the country by aligning policies and programmes with private interests of citizens in ways that promote the general good of society. However, if the leaders of state machinery delight more in promoting their private interests and those of their cronies at the expense of the general good of society as the experience of Nigeria have shown, the propensity to translate lessons learned from the society's own history and those of other nations to development outcomes is greatly diminished. Of equal importance is how citizens, especially the youths respond to arbitrariness, mismanagement and unbridled corruption by those vested with state's resources. Nigerian electorates must rise above ethnic, religious, political and regional affiliations and continue to demand from leaders in executive, legislative and judicial offices, transparency, accountability and responsible governance. Civil society on its part, needs to brace up to the challenge of imposing sufficient constraints on the state's arbitrariness by intensifying efforts at educating the electorate on their civil and political rights as cocitizens with equidistance to the federal republic of Nigeria. The political leaders of Japan, the private sector and household actors clearly understood their external and internal vulnerabilities. Consequently, the state made concerted efforts to create a vision of shared prosperity with assurance of improved wellbeing that transcended social and political affiliations and became a rallying point for demanding collective sacrifices to achieve development. Japan's experience also underscored the role of grassroots mobilisation and public-private partnership which continue to frame development outcomes even in contemporary time. Many developing countries today, including Nigeria are similarly faced with varied threats to their economic and political survival. However, the challenge of mobilizing citizens' solidarity and sacrificial services for development persists due to the zero-sum politics of the political class, institutionalised inequality, inter-group suspicion, mismanagement of state's resources, wrong projects and programme choices, among others. Thus, courageous leaders with the political will to break away from the status quo and institutionalise initiatives that hold promises of better lives for the majority of citizens are in dire need in these countries.
While the development experience of Japan holds significant lessons for Nigeria, I must stress here that the efficacy of particular development paradigms is relative to time and place. For instance, while the SAPs introduced by the Breton Woods Institutions produced positive outcomes in some East Asian countries, it produced devastating effects in most parts of the developing world. In fact, it has been argued that it is this diversity in the effects brought about by SAPs that influenced development thinking ushered in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) with its emphasis on participation of stakeholders within and outside particular countries (Willies, 2005, p. 54). Similarly, the same import restriction that Japan leveraged to develop its textile and other industries in the early stages of its development, especially between the 1920s and 1960s before the forces of globalisation compelled it to open up, had devastating effects in most African countries, Nigeria included (Johnson, 1982, pp. 15-16;Obadan, 2008;Ohno, 2006, pp. 2, 13, 175;Paprzycki & Fukao, 2008, p. 1). Third, the global environment has changed significantly, so it has become difficult for non-Western states to expect that they will tap into the same historical phenomena such as slavery, colonialism and currently neo-colonialism through which the West, and to some extent Japan, developed. The rules of the game have changed, and so countries like Singapore and South Korea, despite their experiences with colonialism, have been able to devise their own development strategies, unlike their counterparts who continue to blame colonialism for their predicaments several decades after independence. For instance, foreign direct investments (FDIs) have become very important in the contemporary development histories of China, South Korea, Singapore and others, whereas it played a less significant role in the development of Japan (Carothers, 2003, p. 6;Ohno, 2006, pp. 94-95;Paprzycki & Fukao, 2008, p. 1). Finally, most of the South East Asian countries achieved development under a system that has been described as authoritarian developmentalism. However, this system of governance is no longer fashionable today; as democracy has become the rule of the game and civil society actors both within and outside particular geographical boundaries have now built global networks of watchdogs for the conduct of state officials (Ohno, 2006). Similarly, improvements in technology, especially in social media, mean that ideas and practices which were hitherto localised or concealed from public scrutiny are now subject to the invasive power of the new media, with attendant positive and negative consequences.
Nevertheless, the fact that the proceeds of the industrial revolution which occurred first in England was successfully diffused in the West and some Asian countries, including Japan means that it is also possible for others to do same even in this era of globalization (Ohno, 2006, pp. 56-57;Sachs, 2005, pp. 39-40;Yasuda, 2005).